Delirium
by Narkness
Summary: A slightly warped side story to Amnesia. 'People perish, shinobis war, monsters rise and mountains fall.'
1. Part I

**Dedicated to: **Lauren, have a super special awesome birthday!

(Welcome to Delirium, in all it's mini-chapter glory.)

* * *

_Th__ere are children standing here,  
__Arms outstretched into the sky,  
__Tears drying on their face.  
He has been here._

* * *

Delirium

Part One

* * *

When the sun rose, a town stood in its wake. People smiled and bustled on unaware of the red clouds that approached beyond the hill.

When the sun crested the hill the second day people mourned the death of a hero and the town stood still in mourning.

When daybreak came the third day, the town was nothing but blackened ruins and a few broken heroes stood still in mourning for those they could not save.


	2. Part II

_Brothers lie in shallow graves.  
__Fathers lost without a trace.  
__A nation blind to their disgrace,  
__Since he's been here._

_

* * *

  
_Delirium

Part Two

* * *

There was something calming and simple in holding her close, even after the horror. She did not sleep so much as she lived and breathed the terror of the night. She whimpered and sobbed, her arms tightly knotted about my waist as the sun peeked cautiously over the hill. It scattered light into our hiding spot, laying luminosity into the cave.

I didn't have the time or energy to worry about the red mass that was once my leg, she was in far worse danger than I. The putrid smell of death still hung in the air like polluted oxygen. She was defenceless, I was dieing.

It's hard to say what started this all, what tipped the scales. And it is near impossible to pinpoint the moment when the world instead of crumbling, was ripped from beneath me. Endings, however, are far much easier to locate, clear cut like a diamond. When something ends, it's obvious. Things stop. People die. Some leave.

But beginnings are like shadows and mist, blurring and smudging all that they touch.

Though it is an uncertainty, I know this is far from an ending.


	3. Part III

_And I see no bravery.  
__No bravery in your eyes anymore,  
__Only sadness. _

* * *

Delirium.

Part Three

* * *

_The weather, I must say, is terrific. _If only all things could be that way, a simple meagre thing that can be casually spoken about without much worry.

The mood was sedated and eerily sparse of chatter making me highly aware of every move I made. The air was not tense, so much as suffocating. And what worried me the most was when she lightly touched my hand across the dirty bar bench and offered me a most unconvincing tiny smile. Like slow motion, she stood and left.

It felt like a wordless goodbye, the second in less than twenty-four hours.

I watched her dishevelled locks follow behind her as she trailed out, she reminded me of a wilting flower. A flower crushed underfoot by a soldier of a two-man war, which now lay forgotten in the smudged lines of the delirium that attempts to imitate life. I struggled to comfort her, I understood loss, but to lose that one you hold dear was a completely foreign concept to me. I can only attempt to empathise and imagine such an emotion. I imagine it would be far worse than losing a friend.

And it always did little to smother a hurting human with care and love, it reminds them of what they once had, and can have the completely opposite result to what you were hoping for.

Scattered shinobi sat about the bar, their babble had resumed now she had left, I tried to listen but it came to me as no more than a dull drone like bees frantically fluttering wings. Glancing down, I found something that was far more interesting, a bottle of sake.

I am aware that answers are never found at the bottom of a sake bottle, but it does wonders in erasing the questions that caused the problems in the first place.

Luckily, in my sake induced stupor, I decided against tucking myself behind the ear of the Third and waiting out the night, but instead decided to stumble in the direction of the bridge, where I proceeded to swim fully clothed.

Nor did I drown nor did I choke on my own vomit but was instantly sobered by the explosion that shook the land like a giant baby shaking a rattle insistently. Had I been a top the previous Hokage's head, I would have surely fallen like a fool. I could just see it on my tombstone.

_Uzumaki Naruto, baka, monster and drunken fool_

And it was quite apparent if I didn't get moving, that would soon be a true harsh reality. If I didn't have a heart or a sense of intelligence I wouldn't have run in the direction of the Hyuuga estate, because it was the thought of the tombstones that may lie beside my own.

The estate was in an uproar, as was the streets as they now teemed with frantic people. Screams, tears and cries were produced by the people, but they barely outweighed the hell that shattered the sky. Through the confusion I almost lost track of my own personal mission, but many around were able to run and move. Fellow shinobi ran about, heeding civilians in the direction of safety.

Yet I knew of one who could not.

I found her in the hall of the main house, on the floor with not a soul about. Nobody had helped her. Meaning her guards had run, without bothering to take the crippled girl with them. She whispered a word of amazement as she lifted her gaze to me, showing a weak smile.

But my blood ran cold as her mouth widened and she spoke in frenzied bursts, I couldn't make it out. I felt the searing heat against my back like a monster breathing down my neck, and then her words were clear.

"_Run! Run Naruto!" _

I wouldn't let this become another wordless goodbye.


	4. Part IV

_Houses burnt beyond repair,  
__Smell of death is in the air.  
__A woman weeping in despair,  
__Says he has been here._

* * *

Delirium

Part Four

* * *

As soon as I felt that heat, I snatched her up and ran. Safety of the outside was beckoning; being punted for sport outside was easier than being crushed under mountains of wood and brick. Somehow through all of this I had managed to stay conscious, as had she.

She was blubbing and crying a chorus of nonsense words into my neck as I ran, ignoring the sharp stinging pain in my left leg. But I struggled to ignore the insistent violent voice resounding in my skull. A violent monotone I now struggled to suppress.

_Come on Naruto. Let's run, spill blood once more. I can help you. _

I still remembered the evacuation route, every Konoha ninja had had the route drilled into them by a very intimidating Morino Ibiki a week after the death of the Third.

The walkways to the intricate tunnel system beneath the mountain were packed with civilians screaming for refuge. But the stationed guards had bolted the gates, yelling that they were full up. Or perhaps they were afraid of the explosions and giant snakes that had taken hold of the village. They were cowards.

_Naruto. Let's play, Naruto. _

Despite the raw heat of burning houses the air was chilly. If we weren't eaten or obliterated, we would surely die from the cold with this little shelter.

_Naruto. I can help you. _

It was like a nightmare I couldn't wake up from, but much worse than when I was younger. We were locked out of the attack shelter, along with hundreds of others. The only familiar face was the one nestled in my arms. Tonight, ninja or not, it was everyone for themselves like a group of ants in the rain.

_Naruto. Naruto. Naruto. _

My arms were feeling akin to lead weights and holding her like this wasn't helping. I made a choice and shuffled over to a dilapidated vendor cart and propped her to sit. All that looked back was the wide eyes of a frightened child and the tear stained face of a lost girl. She flinched at as the alarm burst out and reverberated around us.

I turned about and motioned for her to hold onto my shoulders and lifted her lifeless legs.

'_Where are we going?' _she whispered brokenly into my ear, resting her head exhaustedly against my neck as I stumbled away from the crowd.

'Away.'

Inside the eerie building that stood like a ghost, we found refuge. In the unlit room, I laid her down an abandoned hospital bed.

'_I'm fine Naruto.' _She persisted as I checked her for wounds. There was nothing fatal, a fair few cuts and some superficial scratches from when the house exploded. Her lithe hand circled mine. '_Are you okay?'_

'I'm fine.' I lied. My left leg was going numb and my chakra flow was being slowed. I concluded silently that I'd been poisoned.

'_Where is everyone?' _

'Probably safe at the shelter.'

_Naruto. Naruto. Naruto. _

'_What about us?' _

'I'm going to gather supplies and get you out of the village. We'll both be fine.'

She smiled ever so softly at that, her features barely illuminated by the moonlight that peeked through the window. Her raven locks lay in abandon, carelessly framing her face and draping her shoulders.

I forgot the impending doom of giant snakes, the coming of my death within at least two days if we survived the night, the unsure fate of Konoha and its peoples. The alarms dark tenor seemed a far off dream.

'_We should get moving._' She whispered quietly.

'Hai.'

I was distracted.

I kissed her and time slowed. A delicate hand knotted in my hair, holding me close as she reciprocated the kiss. Time stopped. It no longer mattered that our fate was unclear, she was alive and for that alone, I was thankful.

_Naruto. _

Time was snapped back to real time with horrific screams and an explosion that shook and roared like the Kyyubi had been unleashed. It took me a moment to realise that we were both uninjured. Through the room window I could see the crumbling mass of Hokage Mountain, only the right side remained, the solemn face of the Fifth looking back with dead eyes.


End file.
